What Would've Happened?
by Clato-Crazies
Summary: "What if he won't talk to me? What if I say something wrong and he shuts down?" Brutus sighs and runs his hand over his bald head. He lets out a huff of breath and gives Enobaria a hopeless look. "Enobaria, that boy's as broken as he can get. I mean, if theres anything left to break it's not much... at least not anything that matters." AU. Cato wins The Hunger Games


**What Would've Happened?**

"You need to go talk to him."

"Why me?"

"Because, Enobaria, you were the one that talked to him about this before the games and you're the only one who knows what he's going through."

"But, Brutus-"

"No 'buts' you know it's true."

Enobaria lets out a long sigh and turns around. She looks at the blond teenager sitting in the windowsill of the train, once so full of life, now speaks only two words together, if you're lucky. Enobaria turns back around.

"What if he won't talk to me? What if I say something wrong and he shuts down?"

Brutus sighs and runs his hand over his bald head. He lets out a huff of breath and gives Enobaria a hopeless look.

"Enobaria, that boy's as broken as he can get. I'm surprised he can even walk by himself. I mean, if theres anything left to break it's not much... at least not anything that matters."

Enobaria looks up at him and gives him a nod. She turns around and starts walking towards the blond.

She sits down in the windowsill across from where he's sitting and looks out the window before looking at him. His face stays unchanging like it has for the past five days.

"Hey, Cato." Enobaria starts, making her presence known.

No response.

"Clove, was a good person, Cato." he flinches when she says her name.

"I know you already know that, but I don't want you to forget it. I also want you to know that it's not your fault."

He scoffs.

_At least he's responding._

"It's true. You did everything you could to save her. You couldn't have possibly known that Eleven was going to kill- was going to be there."

His eyes fill with pain as she says this, his mind filling with memories.

"No, I didn't," he finally says, "but I could've done more."

"Cato..."

"No, Enobaria, I could've stayed with her and gone with her to the feast, but instead I had to go after the girl from Five and before I knew it... Clove was calling my name and Eleven was bashing her head in with a ro-"

He chokes on a sob.

Enobaria decides it's time to lay off the heavy talk. She chuckles as she gets an idea.

"Cato, you want to hear something funny?"

He doesn't say anything so, she takes it as a sign to continue.

"One day when you were ranting about something great you did in the training center, I leaned over to Clove and whispered, 'Is he always this cocky?', and she says, 'Yeah.', and I said, 'How do you stand it?', and she says 'I just wait for him to explode.' I looked at her confused and I said, 'What do you mean?' and do you know what she said next?'

He still has the same look on his face, but flicks his eyes towards her face indicating he was curious. Enobaria starts smiling.

"She said, 'That boys' head is so big, it can only stand so much more pressure from his _ego _before it blows.'"

Enobaria lets out a genuine laugh remembering the story. She looks over to Cato and mentally pats herself on the back, because even the muscular, blond headed boy, can't keep a smirk from crossing his face.

But Enobaria's triumph is short lived when that smirk goes away as fast as it came, replacing it with a frown, and tears fill Cato's eyes. He takes a shuddering breath.

"I miss her." he says hoarsely letting silent tears stream down his face.

Enobaria's heart constricts when he says this. She's never liked the word _miss._ She's never liked what it means.

If you _miss_ a target, you fail to hit or strike it. If you _miss_ a chance, you fail to take advantage of it. If you _miss_ the the location of something, you notice the absence or loss of it.

If you _miss_ someone, you regret the absence or loss of that person.

Enobaria's never wanted to, and never has, _missed_ anything. Until now, and she hates herself for it.

"I miss her, too."

Enobaria doesn't know what drives her to do it, but she reaches over and grabs Cato's hand in hers. She's surprised when he actually holds it and squeezes it a little.

Enobaria looks over at the broken boy and can't believe what he's become. Then something comes to Enobaria's mind and it just might get him back to his old self.

"Cato."

Cato looks over to her.

"What would Clove say, if she saw you like this?"

Cato looks down at his hand that's not occupied and gets a shameful look on his face.

"She'd probably tell me to get off my lazy butt and stop worrying about her and move on with my life." he says a smile slowly growing on his face as he says it.

Enobaria bites back a smile.

"Right, so don't you think Clove would want more for you than sitting here in the windowsill doing nothing, but stare?"

He looks back up at her for a few seconds before nodding slightly.

"And I know you want to make Clove happy so, why not do something that would make her happy? Go out and do something like, come to dinner with the rest of us tonight when we get home."

Cato nods.

"I'd like that. Thanks, Enobaria."

Enobaria smiles.

"No problem." she says and gets up to walk away.

"Enobaria?"

She turns around.

"Yeah?"

Cato looks down at his hands as if thinking whether or not he should speak his thoughts. He looks back up at her.

"Do you ever wander, what would've happened, what things would've changed, if you hadn't gone into the games? If there hadn't been any games at all?"

She smiles sadly.

"All the time."

He just nods and she takes that as her cue to leave. Right as she's about to leave the room, she hears him say softly.

"Yeah, me too."


End file.
